Research papers

Parminder Jeet Singh wrote an article for the Economic & PoliticalWeekly, commenting on the future of the Internet after agreements between telecom companies and specific websites (e.g. Google and Verizon in the US or Facebook and Airtel in India), which challenge the principle of net neutrality.

This paper, published in Women in Action (2, 2008) by Isis International – Manila, is a critique of the 'People's Communications for Development' (PC4D) framework that has been developed by Isis. PC4D seeks to rightly challenge the tendency of the dominant 'ICT for Development' (ICTD) frameworks to pull all existing development practice into a monolith that is centred on what may be called the 'revolutionary organising power' of the new ICTs, and attempts to put people back into the centre of development practice. Where PC4D is mistaken, this paper argues, is in taking the new ICTs as the main target of its critique.

This article, published in the Economic and Political Weekly (3 October 2009), is a report of the consultation on the 'Misuse of Communication Technology and Its Linkages with Violence against Women' held in Trivandrum (India) in March 2009. The article advocates that policy choices need to avoid narratives of fear around new technologies, narratives that can effectively constrain women’s freedom to use digital spaces.

This research, supported by the National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) and undertaken by IT for Change, seeks to understand how principles promoting women’s inclusion and gender sensitivity can be incorporated into Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICTD) projects through an analysis of five interventions: Abhiyan’s Mahiti Mitra kiosks, DHAN Foundation’s Village Information Centres, the E-Krishi application within the Akshaya project, rural eSeva kiosks and the Community Learning Centres and Trade Facilitation Centres of SEWA.

Written and produced in collaboration with partners, the Bridge Cutting Edge Packs provide accessible overviews of the latest thinking on a gender theme and summaries of the most useful resources. Each pack includes an Overview Report, a Supporting Resources Collection and a copy of Gender and Development In Brief. In the the 'Gender and ICTs' overview section Anita Gurumurthy provides a feminist critique of ICT4D debates.

This research paper is part of the collection of essays In search of economic alternatives for gender and social justice: Voices from India which highlights some common guiding principles for alternative economic practice and building blocks for an alternative economic paradigm.
Against the backdrop of the social landscape of South Asia, which reveals glaring faultlines of religious, linguistic and ethnic assertions and conflicts, the new communication channels of the technology age pose a huge threat to social capital and the legitimacy of nation-states.

This article was published in the EgovOnline.net magazine in August 2006. The challenge of the 'Right to Information' is that while such rights may have been translated into laws, the practice of enforcing such rights is one which in many contexts is out of reach for those without considerable access to legal or financial resources. However, it is precisely those with the least resources who may have the most need to have access to such information.